Various components, such as turbine buckets for gas turbine engines, are often formed by directional solidification (DS)/single crystal (SC) casting techniques. More specifically, many components are often formed by a casting “withdrawal” technique where a melt-filled investment mold is withdrawn from a casting furnace. Withdrawing the melt-filled investment mold from the casting furnace permits a molten metal or alloy in the mold to cool and solidify, forming the component within the mold.
As the molten metal or alloy cools it may shrink, leading to the formation of porosity within portions of the component, such as a turbine bucket tip shroud. One method of filling the pores formed in the component includes a hot isostatic pressing (hipping) process. The hipping process is expensive.
A casting method and a cast article with improvements in the process and/or the properties of the components formed would be desirable in the art.